2014 FOOTBALL ESSENTIALS

ROBBINSVILLE — Last year was not an easy one for the Robbinsville High School football team.

First, the team started the season 1-4 under its new coach, former Eagles wide receiver Irving Fryar.

Next, Fryar and his mother were arrested for committing bank fraud on multiple attempted home equity loans.

And finally, the team finished off the season 1-4, resulting in a 2-8 record for the Ravens.

Suffice to say, it was not a pleasant season for the school and its football players.

Fast forward to this season, and the Ravens have a new coach — Andrew Patterson, in his first year as a head coach after a number of years as an assistant, including some time with The College of New Jersey and Princeton University.

But Patterson is bringing a lot more than just a new playbook to the Ravens this year. Patterson is bringing a renewed focus to turning the players not just into better players but better men as well.

“Things that we tell the kids are, ‘You’ve got to look out for your teammates,’” Patterson said. “At some point, you’ve got to get out of your bubble of ‘me, me, me’ and make sure that ‘me’ is taken care of off the field with knowing your plays and doing well in school. And then you look to your left and right, and if you see a guy that needs help, you help him out. And once we start doing that, we’ll be successful.”

The players are already feeling the effects of having a positive role model at coach, both on and off the field.

“Overall, I think he’s taught us how to be better men, rather than just a football player,” senior OT/DB Kyle O’Kane said. “Personally, we’ve had talks, and I think that I’ve developed more as a person just by talking to him. He shows us what to do rather than what not to do.”

After such a trying season, a lot of effort has been put into leaving the past in the past and looking towards a bright future.

“It’s already behind us; we don’t talk about that,” Patterson said. “Maybe there’s one comment here or there, but that’s 2013. And the kids know that 2013 Robbinsville is not going to be 2014 Robbinsville.”

Although this year’s senior class is a small one, it has a big burden on its shoulders as the elder players try to set a good example for the younger players.

“It’s a good way to be a leader, step up, show them that last year was old Robbinsville,” senior OL/DL Jose Betancourt said. “And that not only the coaches are going to try to make this new Robbinsville, but the seniors are going to help them out and lead. So next year when they’re all seniors and captains, they can be just like us or even better.”

“We’re trying to set the bar for them, so they can go even higher than us as leaders,” O’Kane said. “That’s what we’re trying to get at.”

Setting a good foundation this year could be key for the Ravens, with two large classes behind the current crop of seniors.

“Even though we’re light on seniors, I think we have 18 juniors and 16 sophomores,” Patterson said. “So whatever the seniors have given us this year so far, which has been good so far, now we have a big senior class next year for the kids who stick with it.”

With a new coach and a new philosophy, the team is being realistic about expectations this season. But even so, the players and coaches don’t want to be an easy circled game on opposing teams’ schedules like last season.

“Just to compete,” senior WR/QB/DB Anthony Palmer said. “Even if we’re losing by one point, we’re still competing with the other teams, and that’s still an improvement from last year.”

While learning to be a better, more responsible person off the field doesn’t seem like it would translate directly to the field, Patterson and his staff are focused on getting the players ready to take things a game at a time and approach each week with poise.

“It’s the old cliche, but you do it a game at a time,” Patterson said. “We have Cinnaminson Week 1, and we’re not going to look past them and try to put our season into this big ‘here’s our final record’ already.

“We have to go 1-0 in Week 1. We have to go 1-0 in Week 2; we have to go 1-0 in Week 3. I’m sure you’ve heard that all the time before, but that’s the truth. We can’t say, ‘We have to improve on 2-8.’ We have to improve in Week 1.”